No win no fee

Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) are often called "No Win, No Fee" agreements and are the most popular method of funding legal cases now.

Our Charges
A CFA means that if you do not win your case you do not have to pay our charges for the work we have done for you.

If you win you are liable to pay our charges but the vast majority of these charges should be paid by your opponent.

If you win your case, because we took the risk of not being paid anything if you did not win, the law allows us to charge a "success fee" calculated as a percentage of our charges. Your opponent will pay the success fee that we are entitled to as well as our charges.

Expenses
A Conditional Fee Agreement does not cover the expenses we pay out on your behalf, such as experts’ fees, which means that they will be payable if you win or lose.

However, if you win you can claim the expenses paid out back from your opponent. If you lose, however, you would be expected to pay them. We would advise you to take out insurance to protect you from the risk of having to pay those expenses yourself.

Your Opponent’s Legal Costs and Expenses
A Conditional Fee Agreement does not cover your Opponent’s costs. If you win, obviously, your opponent will have to pay these themselves, as well as paying your legal costs.

However, if you start Court Proceedings and lose then you would probably be expected to pay your opponent’s legal charges and expenses. To protect you against this risk we advise you to take out a policy of insurance, so that even if you do lose your insurers will pay any charges you have to pay.

Insurance
We can advise you on the insurance you can take out to cover your expenses and the risk of paying your opponent’s costs. Some insurers offer insurance that you only have to pay for if you win (so if you lose you do not have to pay but the insurer still covers your expenses and your opponent’s costs). If you win you can claim the cost of the insurance from your opponent, just like you can your legal charges and expenses.